Earlier this week, I decided to tweak my mother’s amazing lasagna recipe in order to include some ingredients that I’ve been loving lately. Here are two things I’ve been obsessed with since honeymooning in Italy: prosciutto and arrabiata sauce. Prosciutto, according to Caitlin Fitzgibbons on HelloGiggles, is “like ham that went to university abroad — sophisticated and cultured.” Love it. Arrabiata sauce is spicy red sauce. I learned in Italy that arrabiata actually means angry! The Italian language is so beautiful.

So here is a rough recipe of my Prosciutto Lasagna with Arrabiata Sauce….

INGREDIENTS

13 x 9 pan

6 oz prosciutto

2 jars of Arrabiata sauce (I only had one, so when I realized I needed more, I added some ground cayenne pepper & red pepper flakes to a jar of normal sauce)

Package of lasagna noodles

1 pint ricotta cheese

12 oz mozzarella cheese block

(I also threw in some fontina cheese, since it had it on hand.)

Parsley

Parmesan cheese

2 eggs

Ingredients.

DIRECTIONS

Apply a thin layer of sauce at the bottom of the pan.

Then 3 long noodles. (I usually cook the noodles, but happened to have the oven-ready kind on hand.)

Alternate blobs of ricotta mixture (which is ricotta mixed with the eggs and parsley) and mozzarella across noodles.

Add sauce on top, just to cover, along with proscuitto. Sprinkle parmesan.

Repeat layering order, ending with sauce and some parmesan cheese on top.

Monday night, we had a dear friend over for dinner to drink a special bottle of wine that he gave us for our wedding! A 2000Domaine Cros Minervois Vieilles Vignes. Most wines people buy these days are made to drink right now. This wine is unique (for modern wine-drinking), because even at 11 years old, it was still hitting its peak! All wines were once made this way… built to grow better with time. Very cool.

The 2000 Domaine Cros Minervois Vieilles Vignes

I didn’t do the best job of pairing the meal with the wine (steak probably would have been a better fit), but the cheese I selected for a pre-dinner appetizer matched beautifully. I highly recommend this French Morbier cheese, bought at Trader Joe’s! It was stinky, pungent, and it brought out lovely dark berry flavors from the wine. The vegetable streak through the middle of the Morbier is crazy! (Crazy good.)

The French Morbier Cheese

Even though the meal might not have been the best choice for the wine, it sure was delicious! I served prosciutto-wrapped grilled chicken stuffed with goat cheese & herbs, along with sautéed squash, steamed broccoli, and French bread. The chicken was as easy to make as it is to write out! I took chicken breast fillets, made a slit with a sharp knife, then stuffed in goat cheese (this particular cheese came already mixed with fresh herbs… you could also mix in your own!). I tried to seal up the opening as best possible, then cooked the fillets in our George Foreman counter grill for about 5 minutes. After that, I took the chicken out and carefully wrapped each fillet in prosciutto. I cooked the chicken for about 2 more minutes, and the result was delicious! It was like the prosciutto had been welded on — yum!

Prosciutto-Wrapped Chicken, Stuffed with Goat Cheese & Herbs

It was a sediment-al night, because I have never seen such crazy sediment from a wine! Truly an Old World style wine. :)